Where a 3- or 4-year-old lives in America is increasingly the deciding factor in whether they get an early education.

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Without a federal mandate for early learning, access to preschool has become a stark regional patchwork across the country. A state’s willingness to fund universal pre-K is the biggest driver of whether a child enters a classroom, creating a widening divide between states aggressively investing in early education and those leaving it unfunded – a disparity highlighted in the newly updated 2026 U.S. News Best States rankings.

While overall preschool enrollment has bounced back from historic pandemic dips, state policy dictates who actually benefits from the recovery.

And the benefits are significant. Decades of research show strong correlations between early childhood education access and factors like college readiness and postsecondary educational attainment.

“It means that these kids are going to be less likely to be involved in crime, they’re going to have better jobs and make more money, they’re going to be healthier, and they will live longer,” says Steve Barnett, founder and senior co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University.

Our analysis found preschool enrollment is highest in the Northeast, where aggressive state investments and universal pre-K policies have made early education broadly accessible, regardless of family income. In Vermont, 71.1% of 3- and 4-year-olds are enrolled in preschool, the largest share of any state.

The New York tri-state accounts for the next three slots on the list with pre-K enrollment of 57% or higher, but the picture is very different elsewhere. Less than 40% of 3- and 4-year-olds are enrolled in school in North Dakota, Idaho and South Dakota. Still, several regional outliers achieve high enrollment, with states like Mississippi and Wyoming recording two of the 10 highest preschool enrollment rates.

How States Are Achieving High Preschool Enrollment Rates

While the federal government distributes funding for early education, the implementation of preschool programs is the responsibility of state and local governments. That means approaches and outcomes vary widely by state.

“When you get to pre-K, it’s the Wild West,” Barnett says. “You have some states – Idaho – they don’t do anything. You have some states who do very little. At the other end, you have Vermont and D.C., where basically school starts at 3, and then everybody else is in between.”

The institute tracks data on enrollment in state-funded preschool programs. Unsurprisingly, removing financial barriers moves the needle: States with universal preschool programs see higher levels of preschool enrollment.

In 2014, for example, Vermont implemented Act 166 to establish a universal prekindergarten mandate. Publicly funded early childhood education became a legal entitlement for every child ages 3-5 in Vermont, regardless of household income. Enrollment in public preschool programs in Vermont rose from 45.2% of all 3- and 4-year-olds in 2013 to 64.7% in 2025, according to the institute and Census Bureau data.

The publicly funded universal pre-K operates as a mixed-delivery model in Vermont, pairing state-funded preschools with community-based providers, Head Start programs and private childcare settings.

States Without Major Investments in Public Preschool

The data shows low preschool enrollment numbers in places like North Dakota, South Dakota and Idaho that haven’t made preschool a public policy priority.

Idaho is one of six states that do not contribute state funds for public preschool. In many cases, preschool is not integrated into the K-12 public school system, and the education funding used for K-12 is constitutionally forbidden from trickling down.

To add on, lawmakers and voters in these states frequently favor minimal government intervention, decreasing trust in and desire for public programs.

“There’s certainly a kind of political ideology that the government shouldn’t tell anybody anything,” Barnett says of Idaho.

In 2021, Idaho lawmakers rejected a $6 million federal grant to improve early childhood education. Opponents justified the decision as protecting the family unit, questioning the motives of preschool supporters.

Bridging the Gap

Other states, meanwhile, are aggressively funding public preschool programs.

In 2019, Mississippi had 2.6% of children enrolled in state-funded preschool programs. That number jumped 8.9 percentage points by 2025, reaching 11.5%. Kansas is another state with a significant change in state-funded preschool enrollment shares, increasing 19.3 percentage points since 2019.

In Colorado, enrollment in state pre-K rose from 13.6% of 3- and 4-year-olds in 2021 to 46.8% in 2025, the largest percentage-point increase of any state. That 33.2 percentage-point increase is in part due to Colorado’s universal preschool program. The state legislature passed House Bill 22-1295 in 2022, placing the framework under the Colorado Department of Early Childhood.

The program was launched in the 2023-24 school year and entitled every child in Colorado to at least 15 hours per week of tuition-free preschool a year before they are eligible for kindergarten.

The preschool enrollment jump is part of what enabled Colorado to rise to the top of its peers in the 2026 Best States index, ranking No. 1 in the Education category.

In New Mexico, enrollment in state pre-K rose from 21.1% of 3- and 4-year-olds in 2021 to 37.7% in 2025, the third-largest increase of any state. The increase occurred after New Mexico voters in November 2022 approved Constitutional Amendment 1, making the state the first to establish early childhood education as a constitutional right.

The state, with one of the highest poverty rates in the country, tapped its sovereign wealth fund to contribute.

“It’s where the oil and gas money goes from the leasing of state lands,” Barnett says. “They passed a constitutional amendment to use that to invest in preschool programs, and that’s massive.”